Analysis of electronic pulses picked up from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight shows it could have run out of fuel and crashed into the Indian Ocean after it flew hundreds of miles off course, a source familiar with the US's official search data says.

The hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has shifted to the Indian Ocean, with investigators reportedly looking at the possibility that the plane was deliberately flown well west of its intended flight path.

"The aircraft is still missing, and the search area is expanding," Malaysian transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein said.

Mr Hishammudin would not comment on US reports that suggest the plane may have been sending data to a satellite hours after it vanished from radars.

A week has now passed since the Boeing 777-200ER, with 239 people on board, disappeared from radar screens en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The Reuters news agency, citing "sources familiar with the investigation", said military radar-tracking evidence suggested the aircraft was deliberately flown across the Malay Peninsula towards the Andaman Islands.

China has deployed 10 satellites to help in the massive air-and-sea search for the Malaysia Airlines plane missing with 239 people on board.

About two-thirds of the 227 passengers and 12 crew who are now presumed to have died aboard the plane were Chinese.

The high-resolution satellites, which are controlled from the Xian Satellite Control Centre in northern China, will be used for navigation, weather monitoring, communications and other aspects of the search.

Experts remain mystified as to what caused the plane to suddenly disappear from radar, and imagery taken by US spy satellites reveals no evidence of a mid-air explosion.

Thai police say two men who used stolen passports to board the missing plane were more likely to be asylum seekers, than terrorists.